Audit Applications using Benford's Law

Requests for ability to generate graphics charts for Benford's Law

29 Apr 2007 19:48:06 GMT

I have received a number of requests for the ability to create charts which show the results of tests of Benford's law and can be downloaded and included in other documents, such as Word® or Powerpoint®. I have added such capability in the server routines (Main|Benford's Law). As an option, an output file name can be specified for the chart desired. The resulting chart will then be available for view or download from the URL http://ezrstats.org/chart/FILENAME.PNG where FILENAME.PNG was the name specified for the output. An example of the charts is available for view. Use of the server and routines is available at no charge. I have had quite a number of visitors from both educational institutions as well as government agencies.

Secure testing using dedicated server

4 Mar 2007 14:27:42 GMT

You can test data contained on Excel sheets for compliance with Benford's law using a secure server (https). Six tests are provided:

First digit
First two digits
First three digits
Last digit
Last two digits
Second digit

To do this, go to the home page, select Benford's law, copy data to be tested from Excel, then select and "paste" it into the form. Specify the test to be performed and click the "run" button. Results are returned both as a chart and also as a data table which can then be pasted back into Excel, if desired. There is a help page.

The tests include measures of fitness - both chi-square and K-S. Note that no data is stored, and the PHP scripting code used is available for inspection.

Comments and suggestions are welcomed and can be posted on the audit blog.

An alternative to complex Excel formulae

8 Apr 2007 18:45:11 GMT

If you perform fairly complex extracts/analysis on data in Excel workbooks, you may want to consider an alternative approach, which is to upload the Excel data to a secure server and then run the analysis using the industry standard PHP language. Advantages include formulae and procedure which may be easier to maintain/understand, the robustness of the PHP language as well as the ability to perform additional procedures. http://blog.ezrstats.com/2007/04/08/an-alternative-for-complex-formulae-in-excel-worksheets/

Benford's Law